Nicole "Coley" Blair was fairly ordinary. She was blonde, but not dumb, she wasn't rich, but she wasn't poor either. She had ideas, but was content to go along with whatever her friends were doing.

After all, it was better to go along with their teasing than have Vanessa and Renee turn their attentions on her.

"Weirdo."

"Freak."

"Isn't she creepy-looking?"

They would follow Violet around all day, saying this and other things, until she would yell at them to leave her alone, and run away. The girls found this incredibly funny.

Fourth graders can be very cruel, without even knowing it.

Today, though, Violet hadn't reacted as she usually did. Instead of yelling or running away, she just curled into a little ball by the fence and put her head on her knees and cried.

"Crybaby!" Renee taunted.

Violet sniffed. She was hardly making a sound; tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"Let's go, guys," Coley said, feeling an odd twinge to look at the fourth grade outcast.

"Yeah, this is boring," Vanessa agreed.

They left. Coley looked back over her shoulder. Violet was still silently crying. Coley stopped, suddenly feeling guilty.

"Come on, Coley!"

"What's wrong, Coley? Let's go!"

Coley shook off the guilt and ran to catch up with her friends.

"What was that about?" Vanessa asked.

"Nothing," Coley replied.

"Let's go find Amanda," suggested Renee.

As always, Coley followed. After all, better to be a teaser then a tease-e, even if she privately thought Violet might be a good friend.


I don't know what inspired this. Blamed it on actually getting enough sleep and wanting to avoid physics homework.